The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (“UAV”) having two or more propellers is increasingly common. Such vehicles include quad-copters (e.g., a UAV having four rotatable propellers), octo-copters (e.g., a UAV having eight rotatable propellers), or other vertical take-off and landing (“VTOL”) aircraft having two or more propellers.
One of the benefits of UAVs is that they are highly maneuverable in the vertical and horizontal direction, are relatively small, and can be navigated into confined spaces that other, larger vehicles, cannot access.
While implementations are described herein by way of example, those skilled in the art will recognize that the implementations are not limited to the examples or drawings described. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit implementations to the particular form disclosed but, on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean “including, but not limited to.” Additionally, as used herein, the term “coupled” may refer to two or more components connected together, whether that connection is permanent (e.g., welded) or temporary (e.g., bolted), direct or indirect (i.e., through an intermediary), mechanical, chemical, optical, or electrical. Furthermore, as used herein, “horizontal” or “transit” flight refers to flight traveling in a direction substantially parallel to the ground (i.e., sea level), and that “vertical” flight refers to flight traveling substantially radially outward from the earth's center. It should be understood by those having ordinary skill that trajectories may include components of both “horizontal” or “transit” and “vertical” flight vectors.